HOOKS ACTORS WORKING
DONNA DAVIS (s.stdy '01) appears in "Game of Sides", a new play by Terry Lamb, at Many Rivers Theater Project

CHICAGO CLASS SCHEDULE
ONGOING SCENE STUDY
We have two classes of scene study, which is where we work on acting as an art form. Monday night or Wednesday night, 7-10:30. On-going, start at any time, free audit, 16-week commitment. $135 per month.

COMMERCIALS WORKSHOP MARCH 8-9
Excellent and fun on-camera class for anybody that wants to get into commercials or to improve their batting averages. 9-4 Saturday and 10-5 Sunday. $250 ($175 for current scene study students)

FILM DEMO WORKSHOP STARTS MARCH 11TH (ONLY ONE SPOT REMAINING!)
Tuesday nights, 7-10:30, four-week session, work on your own demo scene. Shoot and edit digital video. Intended for experienced actors. $250

PRIVATE COACHING
$75 per hour

CRAFT NOTES
LEE STRASBERG'S FRUIT SALAD
Twenty years ago when I was living in LA, I saw a documentary about Lee Strasberg's famous classes at New York's Actor's Studio. It was a fascinating film in general, but one scene in particular has stuck with me all this time. The Great Teacher talked about how to make a fruit salad and why that is important to actors. It is a lesson I have used many times in my own classes, and I want to share it with you.

In the documentary, Strasberg watched an actor and actress present a scene from a contemporary drama. After they finished, they settled down and awaited Strasberg's golden advice. An anticipatory hush fell over the packed auditorium. (Strasberg's classes were typically packed to the rafters.) Lee paused and pursed his lips. Then he asked the actress if she knew how to make a fruit salad. She of course didn't have any idea what the heck he was talking about since fruit salads were not relevant to her scene. She nervously asked him to please more specifically tell her what he wanted.
"Do you know how to make a fruit salad?" he asked again, more insistently.
"Yes, I do."
"How do you do it?"
"You want me to tell you right now how I make a fruit salad?"
"Yes."
"Well, I put in some strawberries and some other fruit."
"What kind of fruit? I want you to tell me precisely how you make a fruit salad, step by step."
By now everybody in the auditorium was fascinated and amused. Nobody had a clue where Strasberg might be going with this.
"You want me to tell you step-by-step how I make a fruit salad?"
"Yes, please."
"Okay. I peel a banana and chop it into the bowl. Then I cut up some grapes, and then some pineapple...."
On and on the fruit salad recipe went. When she finally finished, Strasberg said, "Excellent. Yes, that is how you make a fruit salad. After you do all of those things, you have a fruit salad. But you can't have a fruit salad until you do all those things."

He then amplified on his point. I have to paraphrase here, sorry, because I'm doing this from memory...

Her acting issue was that she was continually jumping ahead of the thought process. She would go directly to the line, skipping most of the underlying and unspoken thoughts. He likened the fruit to her unspoken thoughts and then said that, as an actor she was trying to have a fruit salad before she had put in all the fruit. The words the character would speak were actually the final end product of a string of specific thoughts. He pointed out that the actress was trying to get to the end product without going through the thoughts first. In other words, she was trying to have a fruit salad before cutting up the fruit.

In most human conversation, fully eighty percent of the communication is unspoken. If, for example, I tell you that I love you, there will be a series of unspoken thoughts that go through my head before I say the magic words. I will try to figure how you might respond to my confession. When you hear my words, a series of unspoken thoughts will go through your head before you respond. You will be measuring the intent and sincerity of my words by reading my body language, facial expression, whatever. ("He loves me? Ohmigod. This is going too fast. How do I feel about him?...") There may in fact be hundreds of thoughts that fly through your brain before you verbally respond. Our human brains operate so quickly that we are unaware of the mechanics of the thought process, but the thoughts are happening nonetheless. And audience knows that, too, even if not conceptually. If an actor on stage skips the thought process, the theatrical transaction is strained.

Experienced actors learn to allow all of those unspoken thoughts to occur. (Note: This would be a good time to rent the Pacino movie "Insomnia". Watch how he allows thoughts. Juliette Binoche is another good example. Rent "The English Patient".) New actors tend to "act on the line." A teacher who is watching an actor that is acting on the line will frequently give the note, "You're not in the moment." It means the actor is pushing toward performance, skipping thoughts, not being reactive to the other actor in the scene.

I read somewhere that Yul Brenner's recipe for excellent film acting was to "Speak slowly and think fast." It is a simplistic dictum, but it makes a lot of sense. What he's saying is that the actor should allow all the thoughts to happen. The camera sees thoughts.

I'm not a devotee of Strasberg's Method any more than I am a devotee of Meisner's Technique, but both have their moments of brilliance. For Meisner, it is the repetition exercise. For Strasberg, I personally favor the fruit salad.

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